Cigarette vending machine



Oct. 30, 1934. J, s MccuLLoUGH 1,979,044

CIGARETTE VENDING MACHINE Original Filed Sept. 13. 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet l @fads /72 @ca/iwf@ Oct. 30, 1934. J. s. MCCULLOUGH 1,979,044

CIGARETTE VENDING MACHINE Original Filed Sept. 13. 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 @e S//za//Wy/Z,

/g r Zia/keys OCL'SO, 1934. J, 5 MCCULLQUGH 1,979,044

C IGARETTE VENDI NG MACHINE Original Filed Sept. 13. 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 By 25m/M ,Q ai@ Patented Oct. 30, 1934 PATENT OFFICE- 1.979,044 CIGARETTE VENDING MACHINE Joel S. McCullough, ChattanoogarTenn., assigner to lMcMiba Corporation, Chattanooga, Tenn., a `corporation of Tennessee Original application September 13, 1930. Serial No. 481,778. Divided and this application August 17, 1931, Serial No. 557,681

4 Claims.

\ The invention is a division of the subject matter of application Serial No. 481,778, and relates to machines for delivering articles such as cigarettes individually from a carton or hopper and concernsmore particularly the coin slide and the v,combination of said coin slide with the carrier for the cigarettes, said carrier and coin slide being constructed to cooperate in receiving a coin between them whereby when the coin slide ,is operated the article carrier will be moved if the coin is interposed in proper position said slide and carrier.

` The invention consists in features and combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the claims.

`In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a front view of one unit embodying the invention, it being understood that the ma- Y2o chine may be composed of a` plurality of such ,units arranged side by `side and independently removable. i

Figure 2 is a side elevation with the outer casingin section and with the back member in place. Figures 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d are views relating to rthe coin chute, coin slide bar and a lug or block on the cigarette carrier. These views are diagrammatic `in character, `the slide bar being broken away or in section.

Figure 3 is a` plan view'of the cigarette carrier and associated parts with the side walls of the unit or compartment in dot and dashl lines.

Figure 4.is\a4 sectional view from front to rear of one of the units of which the machine may be composed, this section being taken on line'4-4 of Figure 1. Figure 5 is a detail view of the coin operating slide showing the inner face of said slide.

A hopper for containing thecigarettes or a between `4() carton of cigarettes is shown made upof the sides 2 of the unit and the inclined bottom walls 3 which extend between the sides 2.

Beneath this hopper there is a slidable carrier indicated generally at 4 consisting of a plate pref* erably ofsheet'metal `having downturned edges 5 -which rest upon the bottom plate 6 forming a part of the main xed frame of the apparatus and serving as a guide for the carrier. The carrier is of an extent to reach from one side 2 to the other to beguided therebetween. The upper face of the carriermoves in a horizontal plane at4 the lower ends of the inclined walls 3 of the hopper. The carrier is provided with a slot 7 of a Width adapted to receive one cigarette and said slot extends from oneside edge of, the carrier to the other being thus of a. length to receive the cigarette.

The lower ends of the inclined walls 3 of the hopper are provided with recesses or notches 8 and protruding through these slightly are rollers 9, there being two of these at the bottom of each inclined wall. These rollers are of rubber or rubber covered and they are carried on their shafts 10 journalled in arms 11 of a frame 12 which frame is pivoted between the side walls 2 0f the compartment or unit. These rollers rest upon the upper surface of the cigarette carrier and as the carrier moves back and forth the rollers are turned by the frictional contact with the upper surface of the carrier. The plate 6 forming part of the main fixed frame of the apparatus is provided with an opening or slot located in rear of the normal position of the slot 7 of the carrier.` The slot 13 is of a length and width to permit the free passage of a cigarette which upon passing therethrough falls upon a deector plate 14 forming part of the xed frame and inclining downwardly and forwardly to deliver the cigarettes to the front of the machine, the said deflector plate having a flange l5 along its front edge extending upwardly to hold the discharged cigarettes in proper position to be grasped by the customer. For this purpose the flange 15 is provided with nger openings 16.

When the carrier 4 is moved from its normal position at the front of the machine rearwardly it will carry the cigarette which is lodged in its slot 7 towards the rear and when this arrives in registry with the slot 13 in the xed frame plate 6 the cigarette will drop through the slot 13 onto the inclining deflector plate and will thus be deposited at the front of the machine within convenient reach of the purchaser.

The rollers 9 rest by gravity upon the upper surface of the carrier plate and the weight of the pivoted frames 11 in which the rollers are journalled provide strong enough frictional contact between these rollers and the plate to insure the revolution of the rollers from the movement of the carrier plate. The revolution of the rollers serves to cause proper lining up of the cigarettes within the hopper so that they will feed parallel with the slot 'I in the carrier plate and will insure the feeding of a cigarette into said slot for its delivery on each complete movement or cycle of movements of the carrier plate.

For operating the sliding carrier, coin-controlled mechanism is employed, consisting of a slide bar 17 guided by flanges 18 on the outer side of one of the side walls 2 of the compartment, and also by a channeled shape guide por-v tion 19 of the plate 6. This slide bar is normally held. in its forward position by a spring 20 attached to one of the walls 2 and to a stud 21 on the slide bar. The said slide bar on itsv inner side is provided with a lug or shoulder`22 which is tapered or pointed at its rear end. This shoulder or tapered lug, when the slide bar is in its forward position, is spaced apart from a pro-V jection or lug 23 secured to the side of the sliding carrier 4, said lug being square at its front end. Into the space between the lugs 22 and 23 a penny or other coin is adapted to be deposited by means of a coin chute 24 mounted on the outer side of one of the side walls 2 of the compartment. This space, indicated at 25,v is defined by the inner side of slide 17, by the opposing side wall 2 also by the bottom of guide 19 of the plate 6 and by the said lugs 22 and 23 so that a penny or the proper coin having been fed to this space through the coin chute will rest on edge upon the bottom of guide 19 of the frame plate 6 and between the lugs-22 and 23, the space being of such length as to 'freely accommodate the coin and leave excess space between said lugs. The coin having been fed into position, the operation rearwardly of the finger slide bar 17 will cause the coin lying between the lugs 22 and 23 to impart the movement of the slide bar through these lugs to the carrier plate 4 so that said carrier plate will be moved to the rear sufficiently far to perform its intended operation of carrying a cigarette from the hopper and causing it to discharge as above described through the slot 13. Any suitable full lstroke mechanism `may be employed such as the detent 26 cooperating with teeth 27 on the slide bar, the said detent being pivoted to one of the walls 2 of the unit and being controlled by a helical spring 28, the upper end of which is secured to one of the side plates 2. It will be observed that the lugs`22 and 23 are out of line horizontally so that if no coin is introduced into the space between these lugs, full stroke movement ofthe slide bar to the rear will be without effect in moving the carrier 4 because the coin must be present to act as a lock between these parts and withoutthe coin the lug 22 will simply move back and forth over the lug 23 without contacting therewith and thus the carrier 4 will not be operated at all. The pointing o-f the lug 22 vis to effect a proper contact upon the edge of the coin standing on edge or upright between these lugs and also to prevent through any disarrangement` of the parts such contact between the lugs 22 and 23 as would cause the movement of the carrier plate when no coin is present and the slide bar is manipulated. The full stroke detent insures the requirement that the slide bar'h'aving been started in either direction must complete its full stroke in that direction.r In the' rearward movement' of the slide bar 17 the coin will be carried along over the surface'of the bottom of guide 19 of plate 6 until the rear edge of this bottom plate is reached. This occurs when the desired length of back- Ward stroke of the carrier plate 4 has been accomplished whereupon the coin will have reached a point where it will be discharged downwardly across the rear edge of the frame plate 6 which has been affording a rest therefor during the rearward stroke ofthe slide bar. It will be observed thatthelug 22 engages the coin at a point abovevthehorizontal planeof the axis of said lcoin'so that when the coin reaches the 'end of the supporting plate r6upon which it rests during its movement the pressure of points 22 and 23 will serve to snap the coin downwardly so as to insure its discharge into the proper receptacle and its dislodgment from operating position between the slide bar and the carrier.

When the slide bar moves forwardly under the action of its spring a projection 29 at the rear end of said slide bar will come, after a certain lost motion in contact with the rear end of the lug or projection 23 on the cigarette carrier 4 and thus this will be operated to its forward position. There is a certain amount of lost motion in the slide bar 17 in respect to the movement of the carrier 4 in order to insure the proper reception and proper discharge of the coin. The apparatus may be made up of any desired number of units or compartments each unit or compartment being formed with side walls 2 and with the other parts and mechanism above described relating to the hoppers, the feed rollers, the cigarette carrier, the slide bars, vand full stroke pawls. The walls of these units may be held together in any suitable way as by the cross struts 30 and the bottom walls of the hopper also serve as connections between these side walls. The units or compartments are individually removable. Each compartment is adapted to contain one of the packages of cigarettes bearing the revenue stamp and from which package the cigarettes are fed by simply opening the package at its rear end so that the cigarettes'will dislodge from the package into the hopper above described. The side walls of the unit are adapted to enter notches 31 in flanges 320i the fixed frame which flanges are received in notches 31a of the walls 2 and when all the units are in position they may be held' locked tothe fixed frame by the back plate 33 having flanges 34 to enter notches 35 in the side walls. This back plate has a shaft 36 journalled in suitable bearings 37 and there is fixed to this shaft spring arms 38 adapted to be struck by projections or lugs 39 on the cigarette carrier. plate each time that this plate completes its rearward movement. There is an arm for each of the carrier plates so that the shaft 36 will be operated once for each cigarette .thatis discharged from the machine no matter from which compartment or unit thereof. Shaft 36 is connected with a counting mechanism by an arm 40 and a rod 41, the counting mechanism being indicated generally at 42.

Reverting to the operation of the cigarette carriers v4, means are provided to exercise restraint thereon at a certain period of its rearward stroke. this means consisting of a plate or lug 43 in the form of a cam on its upper surface inclining backwardly and upwardly. This cam is designed to cooperate with a leaf spring 44 fixed to the flange 34 of the fixed frame. When the carrier plate reaches a certain position in its rearward stroke the cam will engage the leaf spring and said leaf spring will thereupon eX- ercise restraint upon the further rearward Amovement of the cigarette carrien- This leaf spring bears on the upper surfacev of the carrier normally and exerts its frictional restraint thereon from the beginning of thevmovement rearwardly of said carrier. The cam mem-y ber 43 does not contact with the leaf spring until just before the slot in the lcarrier begins to reg-v ister with the portion or opening of the base plate 6 at which the cigarette is discharged therefrom whereupon increased frictional restraint Vis imposed ony the carrier. The initial movement of the carrier under restraint of the leaf spring will prevent the carrier from becoming displaced whereas the additional frictional restraint imposed by the cam 43 and leaf spring will be sufficient to prevent unauthorized persons from robbing the machine of cigarettes by subjecting it to such jars or blows as would make, if the cam and detent were not used, the slot 7 register with the part of the base plate where the articles are discharged by jarring the carrier along the base.

Reverting to the lost motion or excess motion of the slide bar in respect to the cigarette carrier 4, it will be understood that this results in a long initial receiving space 25 for the coin, because when the slide bar is at the limit of its forward stroke its lug stands apart from the lug on the carrier a distance more than the diameter of the coin and when the slide bar is moved inwardly there will be some lost motion before the coin is gripped between the projection on the slide bar and the projection on the carrier. Conversely, after the backward stroke of the slide bar is accomplished and it begins to move forward there will be some lost motion of said slide bar before its projection 29 picks up the carrier and moves it forward. This lost motion will cause the lug 22 on the slide bar to move away from the lug 23 on the carrier on this forward stroke and open up the space in which the coin is located so that if the coin tends to stick in this space the objection will be avoided by the lost motion action having the effect of enlarging or lengthening said space and thus insuring the release of the coin.

The carrier on its forward stroke is arrested by the pin 23a on the carrier coming against the edge 2a 4of the side wall 2 of the unit or compartment. The side wall is cut out between this edge 2a and the edge 2b and the pins 23a, 23h, which hold the lug 23 spaced away from the side of the carrier 4 pass through the space left by the cutting out of the side wall at this point. The side wall fits between the side of the carrier and the lug 23.

The counting mechanism is operated as above stated by the projection 39 on the reciprocating cigarette carrier. This projection on the rear stroke of the carrier strikes a spring arm 38 and turns the shaft connected with the counter. The full stroke mechanisma for insuring a complete stroke of the coin slide is so regulated that when the slide has completed its full stroke towards the rear the projection 39 on the carrier will have passed completely by the spring finger 38 on the counter shaft. By this arrangement it will be seen that the carrier will not be subjected to the reactive force of the spring which might tend to hold the carrier forward and grip the coin between the projection on the carrier and the projection on the slide. In other words, at the time that the full stroke of the coin slide is completed there will be no reactive spring pressure on the slide tending to force it forwardly and keep it in position, gripping the coin between itself and the projection on the coin slide. The

slide, in going forward, is intended to open up the coin pocket to insure the discharge of the coin should it not have been ejected on the backward stroke of the slide. Were the carrier subjected to spring tension forcing it forwardly said carrier might follow up the coin slide and main tain a grip on the coin.

It will be noted that the coin slide 17 in addition to having the projection 22 has a lower projection 22a. This is spaced apart from the projection 22 and in this intermediate space the projection on the cigarette carrier is received when the slide is performing its coin ejecting stroke. The forward end of the projection 22a is located in rear of the forward end of the projection 22 so that in performing the ejecting strokethe projection 22 rst will act upon the coin and then as the coin is being discharged it will receive another ejecting impulse by contact therewith of the projection 22a.

I claim:

1. In a coin controlled cigarette vending machine, having a wall, a reciprocating carrier for dispensing cigarettes, having a lug extending through the wall, a support on the outer side of the Wall extending along the wall parallel to the carrier, a reciprocating slide bar guided to slide on the support and extending beyond the carrier lug to retain a coin and having a lug to engage the carrier lug and return the carrier, spaced lugs on the slide bar extending inwardly toward the wall and on either side of the carrier lug, and a coin chute on the outer side of the wall extending to a position directly over the spaced lugs, whereby a coin inserted in the chute will be positioned between the slide bar and carrier lugs to actuate the carrier upon actuation of the slide bar.

2. Apparatus according to claim l in which the space between the slide bar and carrier lugs is longer than the diameter of a coin, said return lug being so located that it is eieotive only after the slide bar has performed a certain amount of lost motion on its return stroke, whereby the lugs will more widely separate to insure the dis charge of the coin.

3. A coin controlled cigarette vending machine in accordance with claim 1 in which one of the projecting lugs on the coin slide is located at or near the upper edge of the slide to engage the coin at a point above its center and the second projection on the slide being positioned below the rst named projection spaced apart therefrom and in the rear thereof, substantially as described.

4. A coin controlled cigarette vending machine in accordance with claim l in which the coin slide has teeth along its upper edge to cooperate with full-stroke mechanism and the projection to engage the carrier to retract the same to its normal position is at its rear edge, and a spring for retracting the slide, substantially as described.

JOEL S. MCCULLOUGH. 

